OPEN BOOK: Troubled Teen Industry

You just need your headphones and your heart this week as there is no reading prep to fully immerse yourself in the story, start to finish. Welcome to the format that will air the second episode of each month titled Open Book. With each Open Book episode, a book will never be associated as we hear a true story from the individual that wrote it with their experience. We believe you don’t have to be a reader to fall in love with someone’s story; So our Open Book episodes will give us all the chance to fall in love with a story and its storyteller together. After all, the best part of any story is always the person at the center.

We are debuting our Open Book format with featured guest, Sydney Finfer. Sydney is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor based out of Baltimore, Maryland. Her story will give you unique insight into the troubled teen industry as she is a survivor herself. Within the pages of her story, Sydney shows us her strong-willed personality, her unwillingness to comply with something she felt was so fiercely morally wrong, and the resilience that has always been so deeply woven into who she is.

After being taken in the middle of the night without her consent to a wilderness program, she was then transitioned to a therapeutic boarding school that promised to provide support but instead, caused lifelong harm to her and many other students and parents that trusted this program.

This first Open Book episode is full of empathy and justified anger as we shed light on an industry that is hellbent on remaining in the dark. Sydney’s story is one you won’t want to put down as she shows us how chilling and damaging it is to receive this kind of intervention.

Sydney’s Open Book Dedication:

“To all of the other TTI survivors… I see you, I hear you, you are valid.”

This episode contains content that may be triggering to some viewers.

Our trigger warnings for this episode include mentions of child abuse and suicidal thoughts.